365/365 days

The sun was just peeking over the horizon, filling the sky with myriad shades of colours. Some places still hadn’t left the embrace of the night and were dyed with shades ranging from pitch black to magenta, while others were greeting the dawn with an open embrace, filling themselves with all kinds of vibrant and striking colours like reds and oranges.

The world seemed completely calm and peaceful. Some early birds had already left the soft and warm embrace of bed, toiling away at their life so that they could hopefully gain an advantage over their sleeping counterparts.

This beautiful forest with covered in black and white trees looked like one of the calmest places one would have ever seen or imagined. But this was a deceptive quietness. If someone stood at the edge of the forest for a long time, they would realize that no sound ever came out of the forest.

It was indeed an eerie silence.

*Inside the forest-the clearing*

Ä group of 100 creatures was standing in a very neat square formation. The group comprised of 9 different types of creatures. There were 10 shadow wolves, 12 orcs, 5 dryads, 18 flame-eating crows, 15 thunder leopards, 17 hobgoblins, 10 anaconda-fidi, 10 water spirits and 3 wyverns.

“You guys have seen what I’m capable of. You guys know what will happen if you betray me.” A calm and collected voice sounded through the clearing. The speaker was a teenage boy. He had black shoulder length hair, average south Asian feature and deep black eyes that seemed to be hiding a galaxy within them.

“I have told you the fate of this dimension quite a few times in the past. I will just say one last thing…. Follow me and I will give you the strength to protect your family. Those who don’t want to can leave. I will not hate you or kill you, but I will also not shy away from using you as cannon fodder if the need arises.”

A resolute expression appeared on everyone’s face. They were very scared of the power the man held but they were even more scared about losing their family and friends. All of them were the best among their tribes and families but they alone weren’t strong enough to keep their family safe from what was coming.

Therefore, they willingly submitted themselves to the rule of the cold-blooded reaper. All in the hopes that they can protect everything precious to them.

The man observed everyone’s expression for a few moments before continuing again,

“Now, I will allow you to become a member of my guild. Its name is prōtegō and its function is the same as its name, a Shield.”

‘Morgan, admit these 100 people to my guild.’

‘Yes, Aarav. Now you have vacant positions for 900 common members and 10 group leaders in your guild.’

‘Thanks!’

Aarav finished the talk with his system inside his mind and looked at the 100 creatures who were still covered in ethereal white light.

After a few minutes, the light finally settled down and the bewildered expression on everyone’s face was as clear as day.

‘Welcome to the Guild. You all will forever be a member of prōtegō from now on. If you die, then you will become a ghost of prōtegō, understood?’

Gasps of incredulity and fear came from all around group consisting of the newly recruited members of prōtegō.

‘Don’t be surprised. This is called a guild chat and you can all talk and share information here. To access this place just think the word guild chat in your mind, and then think about the stuff you want to say in your mind as if talking out loud normally.’

Aarav looked at all the members of his guild with encouraging eyes.

Everyone quickly recovered from their shocked state and started playing with the guild chat feature. After a few minutes of listening to weird sounds and confessions coming out of the group chat mental link, Aarav thought it was enough.

‘Now guys, I think you are forgetting that I can listen in to this group chat too.’

Suddenly a pin drop of silence spread through the group chat.

‘Well, there are two more features you should be aware of. Now, whenever you look at something say or think observe and it will show you some basic info about it. As you all are allies so you can access a lot more information about each other…it will help you cooperate better. ‘

Oohhs and Aahs resounded through the group again. Without any change in his emotion, Aarav continued speaking telepathically.

‘Last but not the least, you will have access to a shared storage space which can be accessed by saying Inventory. Here you can store stuff by being physically in contact with them and thinking about moving them to inventory.’

This time the cries of surprise were even louder.

‘It can only store inanimate objects and time is static in there.

Now, I will be going somewhere very soon. Though I will be back in a few days.

During that time, I want you to be completely familiar with these new features, especially I want you to forget about talking out loud during battles. I also want you to choose maybe 1 or 2 people from your tribe and train them to help you on the battlefield.

Any problems till here?’

A brief period of silence ensued again. Finally, the red wyvern bowed its head slightly and telepathically replied in a firm but respectful manner, ‘No Guild master’ and others followed behind it.

‘Then disperse’.

Aarav stood quietly at the rock he was sitting. He was looking at the sky towards the horizon as if watching the stars light years away. A few minutes later a black speck suddenly appeared at the horizon. It started increasing in size rapidly as it shortened the distance between itself and Aarav at a tremendous speed.

It seemed like it would crash into Aarav, but he stood there quietly and looked at the fast-moving object with an expectant look in his eyes.

When the object reached within a meter of Aarav, crimson flames popped out of nowhere and covered it completely. The object’s size started decreasing as if being melted down rapidly by the flames. Finally, it hit Aarav with a terrifying force.

Without moving an inch from his position Aarav just quietly hugged the object, which turned out be a mature beauty. The beauty slowly exhaled near Aarav’s left ear and whispered, “Dear I have been away for more than 2 months from you. I have done a complete survey of this dimension, but I missed you a lot.”

“Emilia, I missed you too.” Aarav took a moment to get drunk off her face and then gave her a deep kiss.

“Oh! My love is becoming more and more handsome and suave as the days pass by. I remember those days when you were just a newly graduated virgin, proclaiming cutely that you would satisfy me.”

“I don’t know if I should be happy that you fell in love with me even when I looked ugly, or if I should be sad that I was so ugly that just practising Galaxy’s Birth to the first stage has made such a huge difference in my appearance. And I wasn't cute. It was a fact that I had proven to you before you left.”

‘Aarav, Freyja will love you forever. Your looks don’t matter to Freyja.’

“Thanks, Freyja! I will also love you forever.”

“Dear! Don’t you know that it’s a bad habit to compliment another lady while holding one in your arms.”

Aarav gave Emilia a quick peck on her lips. He looked at her with his eyes full of burning passion and said, “It seems I need to atone for my sins princess.”

He softly bit her lips and quickly moved into a modest looking wooden cottage. A soft and fluffy bed quietly awaited their arrival in the deepest part of the cottage.

Aarav gently laid Emilia onto the bed and…..sucked his clothes inside his body?.

“Lets thoroughly enjoy the completion of the trial.”

And lewd moans and cries spread throughout the whole clearing.